The "Marketing Aesthetics" of Crypto: The Rise of Celebrity Coins, Points, and Public Chains

1. Celebrity Coin, from Birth to Marketing

Warren Buffett has transformed the admiration of business elites into a globally significant "time auction" through a charity lunch that has lasted for 23 years, creating one of the most iconic models in the history of human philanthropy.

Monetization of celebrity time is not uncommon in the Web3 space. From the early Time New Bank to the later Friend.tech, the exploration of SocialFi has been ongoing for years, but most have failed to achieve significant results. In the on-chain world, speculative trading is often valued more than the "fragile social" established by Tokens. Users mainly focus on the "volume and price" of celebrities, rather than exclusive insights. For top celebrities, the revenue from SocialFi platforms is limited and cumbersome; for KOLs, showcasing influence on platforms with few users can be awkward.

The development of SocialFi has been hindered, resulting in the need for celebrities' value in Web3 to differentiate, transition, and then evolve. Currently, KOLs are more inclined towards paid subscription-based communities and social accounts with certification labels, which are combinations of Web2. Meanwhile, the value conversion of top celebrities has always faced challenges, much like a large enterprise that has a vast amount of products but struggles to sell them.

The monetization from time to influence is an important advancement, with NFTs playing a key role in this process. However, NFTs emphasize scarcity, fixed-price sales, and lack of liquidity, which makes it difficult to meet the needs of both buyers and sellers. This souvenir-like sales model has not been sustainable in the BTC ecosystem.

The value of celebrities urgently needs a new carrier. Although the answer has long been contained in the story of Musk and Doge, an opportunity is still needed. Last year, the coin issuance craze of Pump.fun and the rise of Meme coins related to the US elections gave birth to various grassroots presidential coins. The soaring prices and popularity attracted traders in the coin circle, who induced or manipulated real celebrities to issue coins, while they handled other aspects. This model is similar to the collaboration between MCN organizations and influencers, but the actual operation is more aggressive. From Caitlyn Jenner's JENNER to President Milay's LIBRA, these coins often start with a tweet and end with a sharp decline. The entire process may take only a few hours to a few days. Subsequently, social media influencers often conduct "investigations," and the coin issuance teams shirk responsibility from each other, ultimately leading to a dead end. The concept of celebrity coins was born in this chaos.

Nevertheless, this approach indeed opens up a clear path. Memes, as a low-threshold distribution channel, have shown significant initial effects, but celebrity memes lacking intrinsic value face sustainability issues after the hype fades. AI Agents can discuss the future of humanity, RWA depicts a trillion-dollar market, how should celebrity coins tell their own stories?

Trump's solution seems ordinary: provide "presidential time" for the top 220 holders of TRUMP, and the top 25 can also participate in a special VIP trip to the White House. This approach may address short-term demand, but it is difficult to support the long-term growth of the token price.

A successful meme should emphasize emotion and narrative rather than functional empowerment. The value of celebrity coins lies in the stories of the celebrities and the emotions behind them, rather than simple insights and timing. Trump's dinner invitation resembles an expensive version of a Social Token; once the presidential term ends, its value may quickly dissipate. How to better market TRUMP might be something Trump's team can learn from Doge. Doge successfully tied the images of Musk with SpaceX and Tesla. "To The Moon" remains a slogan in the hearts of crypto users, while "People's Currency" makes holders believe that 1Doge=1U, challenging traditional finance in line with the principles of cryptocurrency. In fact, these are all emotions that Musk conveys to the public through his influence, even though most promises have yet to be fulfilled. The marketing journey of celebrity coins is still long, and the meme-fication of personal influence should not be limited to a single tweet or a favorable event. Entering the crypto space to make money is not shameful, but it at least requires a deep understanding of this field.

2. The Rise and Impact of New Incentive Models

The innovative model of a certain NFT trading platform has become a thing of the past, but the mark it left on the industry is still profound. The platform was able to surpass long-established competitors in a short time mainly by relying on a "points + zero transaction fees, royalties + social fission" combination strategy, adopting an expansion approach similar to that of a certain e-commerce platform. On the day the platform went live, its iconic orange logo flooded social media, leaving a deep impression on NFT players. From a marketing perspective, this strategy can be considered perfect, as it not only defeated strong opponents but also attracted many new NFT users, breaking multiple records in a short period. Since then, almost all Web3 projects have regarded this marketing model as a benchmark.

However, this model ultimately evolved into a new problem. Taking the platform's third airdrop event as an example, an aggressive strategy was adopted to boost TVL and trading volume. The event encouraged users to place orders rather than actually purchase, leading to false demand and price declines. This mechanism primarily attracted arbitrageurs rather than genuine buyers, and once the platform's token value collapses, it could affect the entire NFT market.

The NFT lending protocol and the Ethereum Layer 2 project launched by the team subsequently basically continued a similar strategy. The lending protocol uses a lending points reward mechanism, while the Layer 2 project adopts a "deposit points + invitation points" model. These projects have built a self-circulating crypto bank system through locked ETH, but the returns to users are often unequal. Aside from the decent returns of early projects, the incentive activities of subsequent projects have basically declared the end of the traditional airdrop era. The centralized points system has made incentives an opaque black box, with rules set by the platform, leading to user dissatisfaction.

The points system has brought several major issues: First, there is false prosperity, as users lock their assets into various protocols to obtain project tokens. Project parties utilize these inflated user data and TVL for financing and listing negotiations, which may lead to losses for investment institutions that are accustomed to assessing value through data. Second, it hinders genuine innovation, as projects with technical strength but poor marketing skills are easily overlooked. Third, it causes liquidity fragmentation, with valuable assets locked in various protocols, while users engage in these seemingly risk-free games. Finally, and most critically, the introduction of the points system equates to an implicit issuance of coins, attracting a large influx of studios, retail investors, and large holders competing for limited returns. It leads to either a competition in quantity or funding, resulting in retail investors receiving shares that may barely cover the Gas fees, marking the true end of the airdrop era.

Currently, the points system remains the mainstream model of Web3, but "points mining" has led to rampant speculation culture, and the points trading market has further amplified this phenomenon. Airdrop incentives have changed the nature of early users and communities. A project that pioneered the era of airdrops many years ago originally had good intentions, promoting the development of DeFi while achieving user retention and growth. However, in the current era, the launch of each new project often means large-scale withdrawal of funds and the emergence of "ghost towns." If a project cancels this model, it will fall into an even more passive situation. In this dilemma, users can only continue to seek new opportunities.

3. Competition and Development of Public Blockchains

Ethereum relied on its technological roadmap and decentralized philosophy in its early days to establish a broad ecosystem. However, the path to success has varied over different eras. Who would have thought a decade ago that a certain social media giant would struggle to replicate the success of short video platforms, while a certain e-commerce giant would ultimately be surpassed by a new e-commerce platform with a simple interface? Similarly, two years ago, few anticipated that a certain emerging public chain would pose a serious challenge to Ethereum. Yet, this is the reality; in the current stagnation of application layer development, marketing and practicality often outweigh technological faith.

Recently, the Ethereum Foundation published three articles reiterating its future vision and governance structure. The main points include: decentralization of the foundation's power, intervention in projects when necessary, and proactive withdrawal when not needed; restructuring the leadership to improve execution efficiency and strengthen communication with the community; maintaining the sharding expansion technology route while exploring RISC-V as an alternative to EVM. Although the overall attitude still seems somewhat aloof, the foundation has indeed lowered its stance.

However, the real issue with Ethereum may not be limited to this. These changes mainly target user dissatisfaction with the foundation, but the unwillingness to integrate into mainstream culture is also a weakness of Ethereum, primarily reflected in its founder. There is no fault in not understanding or wanting to understand Meme culture itself, but the problem lies in the fact that this founder still has absolute influence over Ethereum. A project valued at $220 billion is led by a relatively idealistic young person who is unwilling to accept the current mainstream culture in the circle, which makes the backwardness in this situation not surprising. However, among many relatively aloof Layer2 projects, there are also highlights like Layer2 launched by a certain exchange that can compete with emerging public chains. If I were a member of the Ethereum foundation, I would definitely seek support for such projects.

Putting aside conspiracy theories, although the leaders of a certain exchange's public chain also do not fully understand Meme culture, they are at least making an effort to embrace these new concepts. Recently, they launched a once-popular track like decentralized science, but the lack of a Western user base leads to relatively short-lived booms each time.

The success of a certain emerging public chain lies in its lower profile. After its main supporters encountered a crisis, the situation of this public chain resembled that of a child left without protection. Faced with the giant Ethereum, it must seize every opportunity. Starting from a certain Meme project, it has evolved into various super Memes, decentralized applications, and payment financial projects. In the past, people often joked that this was a single-player chain, but in terms of its inclusiveness and support for the ecosystem, it appears even more decentralized.

It is not a specific project that has turned this public chain around, but rather that such projects can only be born in this kind of ecosystem. This is similar to the relationship between a certain DEX and Ethereum a few years ago. Positioning it as the preferred chain for non-technical users is the core marketing concept of this public chain, emphasizing popularization, ease of use, and efficiency. As cryptocurrencies expand to Western mainstream users today, pragmatism takes precedence, and popularization becomes mainstream. This public chain is indeed suitable to become the first chain for many users.

Conclusion

The narrative of the crypto world has always oscillated between technological idealism and human greed. The rise in token prices, the prosperity of projects, and the revival of public chains are essentially all rooted in successful marketing. In the past, we listened to the technological narrative, but now we need to integrate more into mainstream culture.